Scotland Yard has warned of a growing trend of young women travelling
to Syria after launching an urgent appeal to find three teenage
schoolgirls inspired by a classmate to flee the country to join Islamic
State (Isis).
The girls, all described as straight-A students
from Bethnal Green Academy in East London, left home on Wednesday and
flew to Turkey, raising fresh questions about the co-operation of
airlines in attempting to prevent radicalised young Britons from
travelling abroad.
Police believe that heavy snow in Istanbul is
likely to have delayed the girls’ plans to travel from Istanbul to the
Syrian border and may provide a final opportunity to rescue them before
they become effective prisoners of radicals in Syria.

Scotland Yard is concerned about young women being radicalised. – AP
Detectives
are understood to be investigating whether the girls – Shamima Begum,
15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an unnamed girl, 15 – are part of wider
group of teenagers from the highly rated school with ambitions to travel
to the country.

Police revealed yesterday that the trio were linked to a
15-year-old fellow schoolgirl who left the country in December for Syria
and has not been traced. Although police were unable to prevent her
flight from the country, they brought her 15-year-old friend home after
stopping a plane on the runway at Heathrow Airport. She did not attend
the school. The decision to release the names of two of the girls was
made in conjunction with the “devastated” families. Anti-terrorist
officers were forced to weigh up publicly naming the girls with the
prospect of them becoming poster girls for jihad if they do make it
across the border.
Senior officers said it was not clear what
prompted them to take such radical action, with few details from social
media or indications that they had been targeted for grooming by
radicals. They took their phones with them, but it was not yet clear if
they had been in contact with their friend who left the country in
December.

Security footage of ‘Girl C’ (above),
Shamima Begum (middle) and Kadiza Sultana (top) as they pass through
Gatwick Airport on their way to Istanbul.

The two girls who were named were British with Bangladeshi
heritage. They gave plausible explanations to their families where they
would be for the day and boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Gatwick
just after noon on Wednesday. The families reported the girls missing
that night and the next morning.
Isis has sought to recruit young
women as part of its campaign. They are banned from fighting, but
British extremists have appealed to young girls and women to travel to
Syria to become wives of fighters, and mothers.
Researchers from
King’s College International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation said
that the women travelling appeared to be becoming younger and less
fanatical. A report last month claimed that as many as 550 women from
western Europe had travelled to join the terrorist group.
Commander
Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism
command, said: “We are concerned about the numbers of girls and young
women who have or are intending to travel to the part of Syria”
controlled by Isis. Independent— Independent

Welfare radicals

Australia: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has foreshadowed a crackdown on abuse of welfare by terror supporters. He
said up to November, 55 of 57 Australians who had travelled to theMiddle East to join the Islamist death cult had been on welfare, and
that wasn’t good enough.
“If you are fit enough to go overseas to
fight for a terrorist organisation, surely you should not be abusing
the welfare system back in Australia,” he said yesterday. Mr Abbott will
deliver a national security statement tomorrow.